Scottie Pippen blasts Michael Jordan as 'horrible player' before pair became teammates
Scottie Pippen’s odd war on Michael Jordan continues.
In what has become a one-sided feud long after retirement, Pippen has repeatedly gone after Michael Jordan, seemingly stemming from his treatment in “The Last Dance” documentary, which famously chronicled the 1990s Chicago Bulls and was largely centered around Jordan.
Recently, while a guest on Stacey King’s “Gimme The Hot Sauce” podcast, Pippen joined and once again sideswiped Jordan while elevating LeBron James, who entered the NBA just months after Jordan retired in 2003.
Pippen straight-up called Jordan “a horrible player” until the two became teammates.
“I’ve seen Michael Jordan play before I came to the Bulls; you guys seen him play,” said Pippen, who was drafted No. 5 overall in 1987 and sent to the Bulls, where Jordan had been for the three previous seasons.
“[Jordan] was a horrible player. He was horrible to play with. He was all 1-on-1, he’s shooting bad shots. And all of a sudden, we become a team and we start winning, everybody forgot who he was.”
“The Last Dance” did reveal that Jordan was among the NBA’s more criticized players before he won his first title with the Bulls in 1991, his seventh year in the NBA and fourth with Pippen as his teammate.
Scottie Pippen appeared on Stacey King’s “Gimme The Hot Sauce” podcast. Screengrab via YouTube/Stacey King's Gimme The Hot Sauce Podcast
Michael Jordan (23) and Scottie Pippen (33) were teammates on the Bulls from 1987-98, winning six championships in eight years before Jordan’s second retirement. AFP via Getty Images
LeBron James and the Lakers were swept out of the Western Conference Finals by the Denver Nuggets to close the 2022-23 season. NBAE via Getty Images
Pippen went on to say that the aforementioned James, who just completed his 20th season in the NBA, will be the greatest statistical player in the history of the sport.
“LeBron James will be the greatest statistical [player] to ever play the game of basketball,” Pippen said on the show. “There’s no comparison to him, none.”
“So, does that make [LeBron] the greatest player to ever play the game? I’ll leave that out for debating,” Pippen added, opting not to call LeBron the greatest NBA player of all-time outright.
“I don’t believe that there’s a great player because our game is a team game and one player can’t do it.”
This was a milder comment about Jordan than Pippen has used in the past, though.
Source: New York Post
